This invention is directed to a digital video broadcast system and method, and, in particular to a system and method of providing interactive look-and-feel in a digital video broadcast system via an X-Y protocol which transmits from a head end server to a set-top box.
Fully interactive television based on sessions between a server at a head-end and a client set-top box has proven to be very expensive and impractical for commercial applications at this time. However, less expensive one-way broadcast systems using satellites or microwaves are now being deployed which use digital video compression to provide an increased number of video channels to a viewer. It is desirable to create a system that distributes digital video along with other data. Such other data can include a protocol which is usable to create a system that results in a look-and-feel of interactivity without transmission from the client set-top box to the head end server.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,991,266 (Baer) issued Sep. 9, 1976 and is directed to dual image television. In particular, this patent is directed to an early method for transmitting a sequence of horizontal video lines taken alternatively from two video sources, so that in one transmission when playing alternate horizontal video lines, either one of the video tracks may be played.
Additionally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,414,471 (Saitoh, et al.) issued May 9, 1995 and is directed to a moveable cursor for selecting and exchanging a main picture and subpictures in a multi-picture display device. The disclosure focuses on the picture selector and method of selecting the main picture or subpicture in a picture-in-a-picture system. More particularly, it is directed to a remote controlled mouse for selectively clicking on portions of a television receiver in order to receive a desired picture frame or channel by the click of a mouse.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,524,195 (Clanton, III, et al.) issued Jun. 4, 1996 and is directed to a graphical user interface for interactive television with an animated agent. This is essentially a video-on-demand system which includes a video-on-demand server coupled to a communication medium. A plurality of set top box receivers are coupled to the communication medium for receiving digitized programming in the form of movies and the like from the video-on-demand server. Each set top box includes a CPU which generates and displays a graphic user interface on the subscriber's television. The graphic user interface is used in order to choose the video-on-demand programming or the like from the communication network.
Accordingly, many prior art systems and methods have been developed for generating video-on-demand, or picture within a picture. However, it is desirable and heretofore unknown how to develop a system and method for broadcasting video signals using satellites or microwave technology incorporated with protocol data and providing at the receiving end a set-top box or decoder that is adapted to receive the video information and protocol data and provide a user with a system having the look-and-feel of interactivity. The present invention details the private data which is interleaved within the data stream and provides protocol and synchronization information.